Sailor for Life, Good Idea?

Sailor For Life

March 2nd, 2009

OK, Navy Times, capitalize Sailor! Of all journalistic publications on this planet I figured you would voluntarily follow the lead of the Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton when he decreed back in 1994 the word Sailor when used in Naval correspondence and referring to Sailors of the U.S. Navy.

Rant over, on to some news.

Merging to a single detailing system for Sailors sounds like a good idea to me but does bring up a lot of questions.

Will reserve enlistment requirements tighten up to match the current active duty requirements? What does this “on again, off again” do to SRB?

Plan opens active-duty billet process to reservists

By Mark D. Faram and Philip Ewing – Staff writers

Reservists could begin competing with active-duty sailors for active-duty billets within the next two years if personnel officials succeed in creating what they hope will be a close new alignment between the active and reserve sides of the Navy.

If changes go as planned, a reservist could log into the current detailing system and apply — just as active sailors do — for an open position. If picked by the detailer and the command, he would move back to the active side, possibly sign a multiple-year agreement to take the orders, and report for duty.

It would all take place in a Navy without the traditional barriers to moving freely between the active and reserve sides of the service, leading to a major change in how sailors spend their Navy careers.

Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Mark Ferguson hopes the first step could take place later this year, when officials want to be able to move a sailor from active to reserve status — and back again — in as little as 72 hours per transfer.

I guess the detailer’s stress levels may ebb and flow based on civilian unemployment rate fluctuations. For budgeting and strategic purposes there is a finite number of billets available in the Navy. Someone is bound to be left out in the cold.

The vision is to make the move routine and not need a wartime mobilization authority or require a sailor to visit an active or reserve recruiter, which is how it’s done today.

About time, we have had this vision even before the reserve-active recruiting merger. Even with the accounting system issues I don’t understand why this is so hard to figure out.

“I need to be able to bring reserves on quickly and, in the flexible environment of the future, to be able to allow actives to move into the reserve for periods of time and come back,” Ferguson said.

Personnel officials are calling the idea “sailor for life,” a phrase inherited from former Chief of Navy Reserve Vice Adm. John Cotton. The Navy would track sailors from day they enlist through retirement, all the while providing options for them to serve on active duty or in different states of readiness in the reserve….

….“Life has a way of coming at you in unexpected ways,” he said. “You’re locked in; you’re a sailor for life … when all of a sudden your mother takes ill. There’s a car accident that affects you in some way. You have a fantastic opportunity that affects you, somebody comes and says, ‘Would you like to go to MIT and get your master’s degree?’ … and as sad as it is, you say, ‘I need to leave this Navy I love so dearly.’ With the Navy Reserve, you don’t need to say that.”

…Debbink and Ferguson acknowledged that several barriers remain before Big Navy will be able to treat active and reserve sailors interchangeably.

For example, the Navy and Navy Reserve calculate retirement points differently, Ferguson said, so the Navy needs to determine how it will equitably count time spent on duty by active and reserve sailors.

What about enlistment bonuses? HYT? Advancement competition? Are certain ratings going to have less opportunity than others? How many Nuke reserve billets are there?

I have some paradigm shifting to do.

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